1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heatsink and a heatsink device using the heatsink, and more particularly, to a heatsink having a very large heat dissipating surface area, which is formed of a plurality of thin heatsink plates, and a heatsink device in which the heatsink is installed in an air duct, so that air generated by a fan is guided into the air duct to increase heat dissipating efficiency, and the force with which the heatsink is pressed against a heat-generating source can be elastically maintained.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heatsinks serve as cooling device for heat generating objects such as electronic components or devices, by absorbing heat generated by such objects and dissipating the absorbed heat into the air. Electronic components such as central processing units (CPUs), thermoelectric elements, video graphics array (VGA) cards, and power transistors generate a large amount of heat during operation. When the temperature of an electronic component exceeds a certain level, the electronic component may malfunction or outright fail in the worst case. For this reason, a heatsink is often required to be installed at a heat generating source to dissipate heat into air.
With the rapid development of science and technology, a variety of electronic components or devices have been highly integrated and miniaturized in recent years. As a consequence, techniques for increasing the surface area of heat dissipating fins as much as possible and shortening the heat conducting pathway in heatsinks have been suggested. By these techniques, the dimensions of heatsinks can be reduced with increased heat dissipating efficiency. However, in a conventional manufacturing process, the heat dissipating fins of a conventional heatsink cannot be made thin enough to increase the heat dissipating efficiency. In addition, the cost of manufacturing by conventional methods is high.
Heatsinks are commonly installed along with a fan to increase the heat dissipating efficiency. For example, a fan is installed on a heatsink, and blows air over the heatsink, thereby by cooling the heatsink. Although cool air is blown at the heatsink by a fan, most of it is deflected away, so a very small amount of the cool air is used for cooling. In consideration of the increasing need for high-performance and highly integrated electronic components, which generate a large amount of heat during operation, there is a need for an effective cooling mechanism capable of sufficiently dissipating the heat generated from such electronic components.
To address the above limitations, it is an object of the present invention to provide a heatsink with increased heat dissipating efficiency, in which a plurality of thin heatsink plates, which are arranged in a stack, are tightly joined to one another such that they are radially spread out, so that the heat conducting pathway becomes short with increased heat dissipating surface area.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a heatsink device using the heatsink, in which the heatsink is installed in an air duct and air from a fan is guided into the air duct to further increase the heat dissipating efficiency.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a heatsink device in which the binding force between the heatsink and a heat-generating source can be elastically adjusted, so that the heatsink flatly contacts the entire surface of the heat-generating source, and the heatsink remains bound to the heat-generating source even after an external impact.
To achieve the objects of the present invention, there is provided a heatsink for absorbing heat generated from a heat-generating source, the heatsink being in contact with the heat-generating source, and dissipating the absorbed heat into the air, the heatsink comprising: a plurality of sheet-shaped heatsink plates each having a heat-absorbing portion in contact with the upper surface of the heat-generating source and substantially normal thereto to absorb heat from the heat-generating source, and a heat-dissipating portion extending from the heat-absorbing portion to dissipate the absorbed heat into the air, wherein the plurality of heatsink plates are arranged in a stack, the heat-absorbing portions of the individual heatsink plates are tightly joined to one another, so that the heat-absorbing portions form the center of the stack of the heatsink and the heat-dissipating portions of the individual heatsink plates are radially spread out from the center to give the heatsink an elliptical column form.
In one embodiment, the present invention provides a heatsink comprising: a plurality of sheet-shaped heatsink plates each having a heat-absorbing portion in contact with the upper surface of a heat-generating source and substantially normal thereto to absorb heat from the heat-generating source, and a heat-dissipating portion extending from the heat-absorbing portion to dissipate the absorbed heat into the air, the upper portion of each of the heatsink plates being cut out into a predetermined shape such that the resulting upper contour slants downward from the heat-dissipating portion toward the heat-absorbing portion, wherein the plurality of heatsink plates are arranged in a stack, the heat-absorbing portions of the individual heatsink plates are tightly joined to one another by a pair of compression blocks, so that the heat-absorbing portions form the center of the heatsink and the heat-dissipating portions of the individual heatsink plates are radially spread out from the center to give the heatsink an elliptical column form having a recessed upper center.
To achieve the objects described above, the present invention also provides a heatsink device comprising: a heatsink including a plurality of sheet-shaped heatsink plates each having a heat-absorbing portion in contact with the upper surface of the heat-generating source and normal thereto to absorb heat from the heat-generating source, and a heat-dissipating portion extending from the heat-absorbing portion to dissipate the absorbed heat into the air, wherein the plurality of heatsink plates are arranged in a stack, the heat-absorbing portions of the individual heatsink plates are tightly joined to one another, so that the heat-absorbing portions form the center of the heatsink and the heat-dissipating portions of the individual heatsink plates are radially spread out from the center to give the heatsink an elliptical column form; an air duct in which the heatsink is installed to guide cool air over the heatsink, the air duct having a height smaller than the heatsink to allow a predetermined gap between the lower end of the air duct and a printed circuit board; and a fan installed on the air duct for forcibly cooling the heatsink by blowing air into the air duct.
Alternatively, the heatsink device according to the present invention comprises: a mount casing coupled onto a socket frame which surrounds a heat-generating source mounted on a printed circuit board and has coupling supports protruding from its circumference, the mount casing having a coupling leg detachably coupled to each of the coupling supports of the socket frame and an air duct at its center to allow the flow of cool air therein; a heatsink installed in the air duct in contact with the upper surface of the heat-generating source to dissipate heat from the heat-generating source; an elastic compression member which elastically pushes the heatsink toward the heat-generating source while being supported by the mount casing; and a fan mounted on the mount casing to blow the cool air into the air duct.